When I spoke at the conference, I met a woman who was UCing and asked if she could call me if she needed help... like if she needed suturing. I said I would.

I spent yesterday at a meeting with a group of LMs and a couple of CNMs and it was GREAT. One of the CNMs is leaving the hospital to do homebirths and is going to work with my other fave LM and I to get her feet wet in the community. We love love love this midwife and are ecstatic about her joining our community.

So, one of the CNMs went to work last night and then, at the end of her shift, she called me to tell me that a woman had a UC and during the birth had a shoulder dystocia. A 10-minute shoulder dystocia. The baby died. They went to the hospital (I assume via 911, but don't know for 100%) where the docs and police descended on her. I can't find any information on her on-line or via my law enforcement contacts and we know it isn't illegal to UC, but that they can sure make her life hell... as if losing her child isn't enough that she has to live with forevermore.

My partner suggested I offer information to UCers about what to do if they should find themselves in a similar situation. It boils down to "I want to speak to my lawyer."

Did you plan a homebirth?I want to speak to my lawyer.Did you have a midwife?I want to speak to my lawyer.Very sad.

A complicated potential client isn't going to work out. She is a habitual user (crystal and marijuana and alcohol) who has been clean for a couple of months and wanted a homebirth so her baby wouldn't be put "in the system." After a nearly 3 hour discussion filled with disclosure, I found out more information via my legal contacts and she neglected to share a few incarcerations. She also flaked out on me today, calling 18 minutes before I was supposed to be at her home visit to tell me today isn't a good day and she hadn't gotten the $1500 I'd required yet. She lives 90 minutes away. It's a good thing I asked her to call me to let me know she had the money and what time she wanted me... 4 or 5. I debated calling her during the day and my midwife-friend's apprentice, who spent the day with me, said she would call the woman, but, for me, I needed to see the woman's committment to her desire for a homebirth.

If someone really wants a homebirth, they work hard for it. She did not. So, I'm going to email her to let her know I can't do her care.

Now the dilemma is do I call her care provider she's been seeing to mention she is considering an unassisted birth ... or what? What do I do with the information? I'm confused.

I attended a GREAT birth on Sunday morning at 1:37am. A Rabbi's wife... no vaginal exams, very loving and peaceful and gentle. I was the assistant and all I did was help clean up since I sat outside the door until the birth was nearly over. 6th baby.

The interesting part is she had another local midwife who spent 4 hours holding a cervical lip back with her FIFTH BABY! Absurd. I spent some time today writing about how cervices dilate at different rates... not like a complete circle at all times... and that perhaps at the end of labor, the cervix just naturally has one part fatter than another. If we kept our fingers out of the vagina, we wouldn't even know the cervix dilates like that. But, since we do know that, can't we just leave it alone?

This midwife has been known to have a whole lotta lips to lift. Suspicious.

I did a home visit today on an almost 37 week client. I now have two charts I'm carrying around. smile My former breech client comes in tomorrow (she's still my client, but the baby isn't breech anymore). She should be delivering any second now. Wheee! The client we did the home visit on today... I assisted her birth last time, too. She chose me over her last midwife much to the chagrin of that other midwife. I was honored! We totally are hoping for a gentle loving birth. She had a hospital shoulder dystocia the first time and then this last homebirth, the midwife kinda wigged out anticipating a dystocia and was rather aggressive with mom and baby. She needed sutures and hemorrhaged... I believe due to the aggressiveness, but we'll see.

I look forward to some peaceful upcoming births. We need some peaceful births.

We all deserve peaceful births. Love to the mama who lost her baby today.

Reader Comments (1)

hi....i read your blog all the time but haven't commented before today...first of all i love it...just had to tell ya...secondly whats UC? sorry if its a stupid question but im unsure of what it is and was curious! thanks! :)keep writing..i love reading it!lisag